Comedy of a Spark

             Hakim Dimbadhar  Barua’s  voice nearly run out of the roof-top. “Hello! Are you there mother’s ears that she has done it again, the curry is without salt! Day in and out she in such perfect stupidity. And we hapless ones are to bear with these? Go and tell in the morning and our hakim found the situation quite nagging late for office.
             But then across the wall from the aakhal, came the voice of his wife, the hakimani, sharply ringing in, “And you presume I’m to bear with you? You need to think of that too. Your daily ratings are quite as stupid. My curry is every without salt, the rice never boiled properly, the fish ever half-fried, the dherua stalks half-cooked and goodness what not! What do you really want? And if you think you are going down under the burden of bad food, why not then keep a bamun cook, or may be a khansama? Specialists, you see. That should suit you more. And this poor woman too would get a well deserved leaved from this thankless Job. How about the idea?”

            Hakim ‘’ Good lord! What frightful words. Truth is gone to the dogs. To keep silent seems to be the motto here. Bad food should be praised as good! One can’t even ask anything. The children here shake the world with their not supposed to ask what matter keeps pricking them. If someone’s not working, to ask ‘why’ is prohibited. Dear lord! Am I living in my own house? No. Rather we are living in Maan’s kingdom where one can’t even raise a poor Little finger by mistake.”
             ‘’Hakimani ‘’ Really? Then we stop quarrelling from today also. You ask me where we live, don’t you? Take it from me that yes we are living in Maan’s kingdom, and I’m the SheMssn. You hear me? You better do, for I shall no longer cook. That’s final. And let’s see who can make me do it. Get this work done by your daughters-in-law. Surely you will enjoy it? Eat then as much and as well you can. And don’t worry even when the more. Sounds wonderful. Eat then to your heart’s content, my dear.”

               Now that exhausted the hakim’s stock of patience. The words slapped him hard. How dare she talk like that, and to top it, in unjustified self-defiance? His angry mouth opened and let out, ‘’Damn it, you idiot. I’ll show you how to speak right now. He sprang up from his own thoughts. But now he jumped up from his seat and flung himself on the ground, scrambling somehow to grab the feet of hos surging father. But the hakim was simply uncontrollable. How a roused elephant could be kept chained, for that’s what Slather was trying to do. So our furious elephant contemptuously tried to break loose from Slather’s grip.

                 But ooph! What happened was just the unexpected. In the struggle between them the father tripper and he fell with a need to talk about his mouth again. That gifted mouth always took in ghee and sugar and effortlessly sprayed out bitter words. Now a tooth from that same mouth was broken, forever, and his precious lips ended mess. The turn of events made everyone run in with a deep cut, creating a bloody mess. The turn of events made everyone run in Servants, attendants, family members, a veritable crowd of the concerned or those paid to be so. His wife too came rushing in, crying her heart our at her decide what or whom to blame for it. The burden therefore passed to blame for it. The burden therefore passed on to Fate. And amidst the commotion created, the hakim fainted.

                   Some time elapsed before the hakim regained his senses. Languidly then he began dressing his broken tooth and cut lips. And he worked in a manner to send a shiver down the spine of the household, leaving them guessing if any similarity existed between him and an injure cobra. Well, simply told, he left others hanging on nervously for his next move. But nothing more happened and the game ended with the hakim merely hurrying off to office, late already. Nothing tarried him on the way either, except when he blasted the saluting tarani, ‘’Son of a dog”, which was a perfect bolt from the blue for the confused tarani. With all that behind him, our Barua hakim finally ascended his seat that morning.

                      A brief spell of sunshine did pass over his dark, harassed face. But he was not destined to have respite from trouble that day. The sunshine too was therefore brief, for as he just began writing, the cover of the pen made a scratching noise on the paper. What’s more our hakim took it as a complaint lodged by passed a summary judgment against! Even the daptari Ramgolan was not spared of five rupees as a fine for it. By now it was already quarter yet to bring all the documents of the cases to come up that day.